Morning journal and courier., 1887-11-19
THE SITE OF EDEN.
At Present Occupied by the City of
Charleston, 8. G.

Charleston, S. c.
Bishop ]. G. Keener writes to the Southern
Christian Advocate letter expressing hi
belief that the city of Charleston, S. c., il
upon the site of the original Eden. He sums
up his arguments as follows:
1. In and near the Cooper and Ashley riy-
ers there is vast collection of the remains
of the largest mammals, specially of theil
molars and vertebre. These are remarkable
for their variety; very huge, very many and
evidently of many distinct species. We put
this against all solitary individuals as yet
discovered in or near the Arctic regions.
2. Besides those remains, which from the
amount of silica in them have resisted the
action of time and acids, there are phosphate
masses in which these molars are imbedded.
Probably the large bones returned to their
original source. Then there are scattered
about large and small boulders of the phos-
phate of lime, indicating at greater depth
a mine of this mineral.
3. This shows that these animals were not
foated into this place by the action of sea
currents, but were here from the first and
found in the alluvial plains around, and
meadows filed with bulbous plants and an
exuberant flora, their original habitat. Only
region supplying plants fed by heavy
phosphate pabulum could support creatures
of such enormous bone.
4. As these several species multiplied from
single pair, masses of their remains would
most probably indicate the place of their or
lgin. Whether behemoth was made in Eden,
We know that he was reviewed there and
there named by Adam. And the Almighty
says, speaking to Job: "Behold now behe-
moth, which I made with thee; he eateth
grass like an OK"
These views are strengthened by the build
ing of the ark. It is to be supposed that
Noah lived not very far from the original
home of man. The ark was evidently de-
signed for speed and long voyage. Had it
been made only to start from a given point
and float about for one hundred and fifty
days, and then ground at no great distance
from the point of departure, it would have
been shaped heavy and square. The timbers
for such vessel were necessarily of continu-
Gus length and great strength. Its knees
and ribs would require such wood as the live
oak, grown near the sea. Large quantities
of pitch and tar would be required to make
it water tight. The word gopher" means
"pitch," 'spine." Bishop Keener holds that
it is possible that the gopher wood was the
wood of the long leaf pine, which either of
the Carolinas could have furnished in abun-
dance.
The breaking up of the deep at the time of
Iuo OeIug6 WoulO uOb lnply necessarily any
very great change in the conformation of the
continents nor in the sea currents When
then the ark was lifted up and event upon
the face of the waters" it started due east if
it started from Charleston. Bishop Keener
says:
"It would presently strike the Gulf stream.
Floating on that sea current it would take a
northerly direction until it reached the for
tieth parallel, and then would go due east,
and as many a helpless craft since, would
come within sight of Spain and Africa. But
those coasts being submerged there would be
nothing to defect the current, but it would
pass over the plateaus of Spain into the
Mediterranean, across the lower part of
Greece, then over the plains of Asia Minor,
and still holding the same parallel, strike
Mount Ararat. The distance from Charles
ton to Mount Ararat is one hundred and
thirty-one degrees of latitude, say eight
thousand five hundred and fifteen miles.
The time the ark was on the water was one
hundred and fifty days, or three thousand
six hundred hours. Off Cape Hatteras the
Gulf stream has a velocity of two miles an
hour; this would leave very little to be over
come, if anything, when we allow for the un
interrupted flow which the current ther
had"